Such supply units are used mainly for medical purposes, where a height-adjustable and pivotable supply column with a connection head and is usually suspended from the ceiling of a room, on which a working device used in medical technology can be suspended. Such supply units are used especially when the working device is to be moved into different positions in terms of height and pivoting movement in the room in question.
Whether or not the floor path is free does not need to be taken into account when changing places. The supply unit has with it all the supply connections which remain coupled to the working device during the entire movement. Thus, the user is able to conveniently move the needed working devices into the desired working position and to the corresponding site of work. Both the height adjustment and the area-covering pivoting movement are performed by auxiliary electromechanical means, e.g., electric motor shafts or electrical linear drives or pneumatic lifting piston drives.
A medical supply unit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,937. It consists of two telescoping columns which are suspended on a ceiling, can be displaced one inside the other, and in which the pneumatic supply units needed for a medical device are led to a connection head, to which the working device is connected. A pivotable bracket acting as a receiving part is fastened to the connection head for the mechanical fastening of the working device. The connections for the media to be supplied, e.g., anesthesia gas and/or breathing gas for using an anesthesiological apparatus as a working device, are led from the supply ducts provided in the connection head to the device via appropriate supply lines.
The user must couple the working device, e.g., an anesthesiological apparatus, without further coupling aids, by fastening the anesthesiological apparatus to columns and bracket arms provided for this purpose by means of special screw connection means provided on the connection head. Correctly performed connecting and fastening can be checked only by checking the function of the connected working device. However, all connections are already firmly coupled, so that the entire device may have to be completely detached from the connection head in the case of incorrect coupling.
In an examination device according to DE-B-28,12,074, a working device in the form of a movable examination table is coupled to an X-ray apparatus, wherein the chassis is guided in rails, and the coupling devices engage in molded bodies provided for this purpose. If the chassis is correctly coupled with the examination table of the X-ray apparatus, a guide latch on the chassis engages in the switching contact of a switch fastened on the receiving head, thus signaling that the examination table can now be lowered onto the chassis.
In this prior-art examination device, only the correct position of the chassis relative to the height-adjustable connection head is ensured, but coupling of the examination table lowered onto the chassis standing by is not monitored, because the examination table can be lowered and be coupled into the coupling parts of the chassis only if the chassis is positioned in front of the height-adjustable column. It is not possible to check whether the frame of the examination table has been correctly coupled with the chassis. It may therefore happen that the incorrectly coupled examination table is transported unsecured on the chassis, without the user noticing it.